Edo: I’ll live up to ideals of PDP, Obaseki assures

TRACKING___Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki has promised to live up to the ideals of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, following his emergence as the party’s candidate in the state governorship election slated for September this year.

Obaseki stated this yesterday shortly after he was presented with the Certificate of Return by the leadership of the party in Abuja.

Accompanied by the deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, Kenneth Imasuangbon and Gideon Ikhine, two aspirants who stepped down for him in the race for the ticket, Obaseki lamented his ordeal and the treatment meted out to him and Shaibu in the past few years.

He thanked the National Working Committee, NWC led by Prince Uche Secondus, while noting that the people of Edo state have resolved to follow him en-masse to the PDP ahead of the election.

“What all theses occurrences in the last fortnight tell me is that there is a hand of God that orders things. I want to commit to you that in line with the ideal and motto of this party, me and my deputy, by the grace of God, who is going to be my running mate, for the September 19 election, because you do not change a winning team. I want to commit to you that we shall promote the ideals of this great party and you can always count on us.

“Whenever the National Working Committee calls on us, we will be there. We have no choice because from what I have seen from my brother governors in this party, what they have done and what they did for us in the party and how they revived my political career, I have never seen that level of commitment.

“I and my deputy are very grateful to this great party. Like I said, you will never know what God has destined for you. In our hours of tribulation, when we were pushed out in the rains and storm from our political party, you came out with that huge umbrella to give us cover and shelter. It was only when we entered the house that we then realised that this was the house we should have been in the first instance.

“Because we now saw that the values in the house are the values we cherish and the values we live for- values of justice, values of law and order, values of care for our people and putting the people first. These are the values we have always been in pursuit of, which we found in this new house where we have been graciously accommodated.

“I must thank members of the National Working Committee. The quality of governance and response that I have witnessed, has enabled us achieve much in less than one week.

“We want to tell you that we are very grateful and we want to assure you that Ed people told us that ‘wherever we go, they will go’. On further consultation they told us that there was a party where most of them came from. They told us to go and explore the possibility of us going back there. So by the grace of God, we have no doubt that victory is going to be ours on September 19.”

He also thanked the trio of Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, Kenneth Imasuangbon and Gideon Ikhine for graciously stepping down for him even as he assured them of inclusiveness in the scheme of things.

In his remarks, chairman of the Edo electoral committee and governor of Bauchi state, Senator Bala Mohammed thanked the leadership of the party for the opportunity to serve even as he maintained that the exercise rancour-free.

“There was no rancour. There was no confusion, our eyes were on the ball. We kept the rules and regulations established in the tradition of the party for holding primaries. It was transparent, free and fair. At the end of the day, we discussed extensively and three of the contestants mooted the idea of stepping down voluntarily, which they did the following day.

“To the witness of everybody, they voluntary stepped down because of the qualities of Governor Godwin Obaseki and because of the kind of leadership we have given.

“But because of the provision of the electoral act, we went ahead and held the primary to the glare of everybody. We have to categorization, invalid because of the invalidation and voluntary withdrawal of the candidates and one lone candidate, which was HE Governor Godwin Obaseki. The election were held and of course at the end of the day all the leaders were peaceful. Yes.

We had some few cases of people agitating one of more delegation, but we knew it was because of the covid-19 that did not allow us to conclude our own ward elections. But certainly because the PDP is a family under your able leadership everybody and everything fell in line.

After the election we had 72 invalid votes and Governor Godwin Obaseki scored 1952 with the total votes cast being 2024 everything went in line with the accredited voters and we have the results here with us.

And other documents we’re other candidates voluntarily agreed to step down. And for the first time in Edo, we have the a rancor free election where there was no mistrust no suspicion no infight. Everybody was in line and of course, even our elders were there, members of the Board of Trustees Elders of the party, the youth, the woman everybody applauded the election.

Excellency I’m happy to be part of this process. I’m happy to report that all the governor’s that we went there really works tirelessly to make sure that all our differences and challenges were ressolved and we observe that at the end of the day we are ready and Edo is ready for capture.

To be won by this very important party, the PDP. I’m very sure and confidently sure that Edo is going to fall in line within the realm of good governance of the PDP and I hereby submit the report with all the details and attachments.$